Iif you're not using MS Office you may find a lot of your secretarial staff are keen to leave..
If your staff are willing to leave a secure job in the public service rather than learn to use some slightly-different software, perhaps you should be looking for new staff anyway. And if the whole public service is using the new software (and the private sector may be likely to follow suit in order to be compatible with the government) the pool of jobs available to anyone who insists on MS software will be shrinking from this point on.
This will probably have a flow-on effect into other states once other governments realise that open standards are feasible, cost-effective and advantageous. Those that are willing to adapt will be survive and prosper (or at least save $ in software licenses) - that includes governments, companies and staff.
Well, IANAL, but if they just shut up shop the owners/directors could still be liable - this probably depends on the company structure. They also might have trouble registering their new business if they have a trail of unresolved litigation behind them. And I doubt the courts handling the current case would be too impressed by such a move. Also, it would be nigh-impossible to pull such a move without drawing public attention (such as in slashdot) and the new company would be starting with a hangover from the old.
Re:Interesting, but not for me...
on
Singing Science
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· Score: 1
This is an issue of multiple intelligences. We all learn in different ways, we all think in different ways. Regardless of the teaching style (relaxed, disciplined, playful, structured) and method (verbal, written, musical, visual, repetition, practical - and there are many more), there will often be some students who struggle to learn. Some people's brains are simply not structured to understand certain kinds of information (although brains are fairly dynamic and malleable). A successful teacher will communicate in ways that appeal to both the interest and the learning styles of their students.
Historically, song has been repeatedly demonstrated as an effective learning tool (as other posts have mentioned) in most cultures, whether that be for learning sciences, cultural history, personal hygiene or even an alphabet - but with limited musical experience, your brain would not have developed this system of thinking and learning.
In western education, song is one of the earliest learning methods developed for most people (think preschool/kindergarten). It should not come as any surprise then if most (not all) westerners - at least from the last 1-2 generations - can "learn" fairly readily with music. Moreso with the prevalance of music as a cultural phenomenon. However, just because you can recite something doesn't mean you "know" it. Understanding is another level altogether.
Haven't tried it, but PXES might be worth looking at. It can work with a variety of M$ and Linux/Unix terminal server clients. They have a proprietry server available but the client appears to be free. It's bootable from HDD, USB, CD, network etc and can be run on a diskless system.
This article also discusses this topic...Skolelinux, which is designed for schools, appears to be a nice package with a thin-client option.
You could knock up your own shell script that does that very thing. Just make it keep a log of "deleted" files with dates and set up a cron script (if you want it automatic) to periodically check the log and rm any old files then remove those items from the log. I guess you could even call it "rm" and let it use your "recycle bin" unless you use a switch to override, in which case it just passes your arguments to the usual rm.
Why not go a step further and install the supercomputer in a power plant? Perhaps trade a slice of the supercomputer's processing for the electricity to use it, and link the cooling system into the power plant's heating system rather than letting it dissipate. Not very mobile, obviously, which would kinda defeat the purpose of what Google are trying to achieve, but ecologically speaking it would make sense to recycle all that energy. I haven't considered all the pitfalls...but a powerplant is generally fairly security-conscious and environmentally controlled (especially nuclear), which is just the kind of environment you need for a supercomputer.
Well, this comment started out as a joke...but maybe it has some merit?
If you look carefully under the diagram (Fig 1) there are two links to one of the patents - #6,015,258. Pictures and all (although the uspto site didn't show the pics properly for me).
Text version or PDF.
Slashdot Mirror
Iif you're not using MS Office you may find a lot of your secretarial staff are keen to leave ..
If your staff are willing to leave a secure job in the public service rather than learn to use some slightly-different software, perhaps you should be looking for new staff anyway. And if the whole public service is using the new software (and the private sector may be likely to follow suit in order to be compatible with the government) the pool of jobs available to anyone who insists on MS software will be shrinking from this point on.
This will probably have a flow-on effect into other states once other governments realise that open standards are feasible, cost-effective and advantageous. Those that are willing to adapt will be survive and prosper (or at least save $ in software licenses) - that includes governments, companies and staff.
Well, IANAL, but if they just shut up shop the owners/directors could still be liable - this probably depends on the company structure. They also might have trouble registering their new business if they have a trail of unresolved litigation behind them. And I doubt the courts handling the current case would be too impressed by such a move. Also, it would be nigh-impossible to pull such a move without drawing public attention (such as in slashdot) and the new company would be starting with a hangover from the old.
This is an issue of multiple intelligences. We all learn in different ways, we all think in different ways. Regardless of the teaching style (relaxed, disciplined, playful, structured) and method (verbal, written, musical, visual, repetition, practical - and there are many more), there will often be some students who struggle to learn. Some people's brains are simply not structured to understand certain kinds of information (although brains are fairly dynamic and malleable). A successful teacher will communicate in ways that appeal to both the interest and the learning styles of their students.
Historically, song has been repeatedly demonstrated as an effective learning tool (as other posts have mentioned) in most cultures, whether that be for learning sciences, cultural history, personal hygiene or even an alphabet - but with limited musical experience, your brain would not have developed this system of thinking and learning.
In western education, song is one of the earliest learning methods developed for most people (think preschool/kindergarten). It should not come as any surprise then if most (not all) westerners - at least from the last 1-2 generations - can "learn" fairly readily with music. Moreso with the prevalance of music as a cultural phenomenon. However, just because you can recite something doesn't mean you "know" it. Understanding is another level altogether.
Haven't tried it, but PXES might be worth looking at. It can work with a variety of M$ and Linux/Unix terminal server clients. They have a proprietry server available but the client appears to be free. It's bootable from HDD, USB, CD, network etc and can be run on a diskless system. This article also discusses this topic...Skolelinux, which is designed for schools, appears to be a nice package with a thin-client option.
You could knock up your own shell script that does that very thing. Just make it keep a log of "deleted" files with dates and set up a cron script (if you want it automatic) to periodically check the log and rm any old files then remove those items from the log. I guess you could even call it "rm" and let it use your "recycle bin" unless you use a switch to override, in which case it just passes your arguments to the usual rm.
Why not go a step further and install the supercomputer in a power plant? Perhaps trade a slice of the supercomputer's processing for the electricity to use it, and link the cooling system into the power plant's heating system rather than letting it dissipate. Not very mobile, obviously, which would kinda defeat the purpose of what Google are trying to achieve, but ecologically speaking it would make sense to recycle all that energy. I haven't considered all the pitfalls...but a powerplant is generally fairly security-conscious and environmentally controlled (especially nuclear), which is just the kind of environment you need for a supercomputer. Well, this comment started out as a joke...but maybe it has some merit?
If you look carefully under the diagram (Fig 1) there are two links to one of the patents - #6,015,258. Pictures and all (although the uspto site didn't show the pics properly for me). Text version or PDF.
A bridge? Ha! I just picked up a wormhole on eBay. Look out universe, here I come!